In 1990, 38 states passed more than 140 recycling laws. What prompts the states to commit to recycling? In this article, various political, economic, and environmental variables are tested for their independent and group effect on states’ recycling commitment. A composite measure of recycling commitment is developed by combining several political and economic attributes. The results indicate that in comparison to the commonly used economic, political, and demographic variables, a new set of variables measuring policy image are more promising.
It has been argued that environmental management is in an administrative trap. Numerous factors leading to this trapped situation have already been identified in the literature: institutional rigidity, lack of co‐ordination, formalization, non‐accountability and political interference. This study focusses on the organizational, cultural dimension of the administrative trap and argues that in order to reform administrative structures, the organizational culture must also be reformed. On the basis of several face‐to‐face interviews with street‐level environmental regulators in Hong Kong, the study claims that a role‐oriented, hierarchical culture exists. While such an organizational culture is in perfect agreement with existing administrative arrangements, it may, in the end, hamper the effectiveness of environmental management.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.